Black Prison, Transferring Squads

Seeing them look back and forth at one another without exposing anyone else, Aoto knew everyone was present.

"Ha, it seems you lot are quite diligent after all!" Aoto raised his Zanpakuto. "In that case, I'll cut your time down—ten minutes becomes eight!"

The squad members were overjoyed upon hearing this, one after another thanking Aoto for his mercy.

"Sever the light... Black Prison!"

Drawing his Zanpakuto, pitch-black light diffused from his body, and he fired a black sphere that seemed to absorb all light at every offending squad member.

Every member struck, without exception, found a small, dark room manifesting around their body.

The effect of Black Prison was to trap the target inside a small, dark room.

Furthermore, the perceived time for those deep within the Black Prison would accelerate rapidly.

For every one minute in the outside world, they would feel as though an entire day had passed.

Aoto's punishment for them this time was eight minutes, meaning they would personally feel as though they had been locked away for eight days.

During this time, they could see nothing but darkness, hear no sounds, and smell nothing at all.

A normal person would develop mental issues after being locked in a small, dark room for three days; for an average Shinigami, ten days was the limit.

Eight days, however, was something they could just barely endure.

However, although the effect of Black Prison looked very similar to Tosen Kaname's Bankai, and could even be used on multiple targets simultaneously, its weaknesses were quite obvious.

The small, dark room state could be resisted with Reiatsu; if Aoto used it on multiple targets, he had to withstand the resistance of all of them at once.

Moreover, if the opponent used their Zanpakuto or Kido-style attacks, it was very easy to break through the small, dark room directly.

Therefore, this technique held no value for use in actual combat.

It could only be used to discipline disobedient subordinates like this.

And they dared not resist, nor did they dare to actively break the Black Prison... otherwise, 4th Seat Hyakume would have to resort to other methods.

That would not just harm the mind, but the body as well.

When the eight minutes passed and the Black Prison was lifted, the dozen or so squad members all collapsed to the ground one by one.

It was mentally exhausting!

Unable to do anything, forced to endure in the darkness... it was truly a form of torture.

During those eight minutes, Abarai Renji and Kira Izuru, who were unfamiliar with Black Prison, had heard about it from the other squad members.

Although those squad members were gloating, the two of them felt extremely terrified.

Especially Abarai Renji; he was a member of the 11th Division, and if he did something wrong, it was very likely he would be punished by Aoto with this technique.

Thinking about it, Abarai Renji shuddered.

Kira Izuru, also gloating slightly, placed a hand on his shoulder. "Pray for your own luck!"

Kira Izuru was now very glad that he belonged to a different division; even if he made a mistake, it wouldn't be 4th Seat Hyakume's turn to discipline him.

No, wait—he wouldn't make mistakes.

He wouldn't be as prone to causing trouble as Abarai!

From this day on, Abarai Renji became not only very diligent but also very obedient.

In particular, he would even over-complete the training tasks assigned by 4th Seat Hyakume.

Everything in the 11th Division was extremely friendly to Abarai, who was desperate to get ahead.

During the "Sword Zen" class taught by 4th Seat Hyakume, he even heard the voice of his Zanpakuto for the first time.

This was the first step toward awakening a Zanpakuto, and also the most important one.

Although hearing the voice didn't mean he could subdue his Zanpakuto, more than half of the 11th Division members hadn't even heard their Zanpakuto's voice, let alone had the chance to perform Shikai.

Because he had heard his Zanpakuto's voice, Abarai Renji received special attention from 4th Seat Hyakume.

After all, every Shinigami knew that the more Shinigami who could perform Shikai, the better!

The veteran squad members envied him and often came to challenge him during training... although he lost more than he won and was beaten up quite often, he accepted it gladly.

After all, his strength was steadily rising with these battles.

The more severely he was injured, the more his Reiatsu increased.

Regarding this situation, Kira Izuru, who helped him with treatment every day, was truly very jealous.

However, just as Abarai Renji was preparing to attend the monthly "Sword Zen" class, he was suddenly informed that this session had been moved to tomorrow.

This was because 4th Seat Hyakume had to attend his disciple's transfer ceremony.

Shiro was transferring from the 11th Division to the 10th Division.

Shiro's spiritual power was already very stable at the fifth rank. Aoto told him not to be in such a hurry to progress; in any case, the Reiatsu that surged after his Shikai could reach the peak of the fourth rank. Even if his normal-state Reiatsu quickly rose to the fourth rank now, his strength after Shikai wouldn't break through to the third rank.

Unless he comprehended Bankai, this upper limit was quite fixed!

Shinigami who can reach the third-class spiritual power level without relying on Bankai are not non-existent, but they are certainly rare.

Otherwise, why would such powerful existences have been so scarce before the appearance of the Zanpakuto?

Yet, every single one who manages to break through that barrier possesses strength that is excessively formidable.

Hitsugaya Toshiro had heard Aoto speak of the history of the Soul Society, and he held the captains of the original 13th Division, led by Captain-Commander Yamamoto, in high esteem.

He, too, wished to ascend through this method.

But Aoto felt that Hyōrinmaru would not be patient for that long.

After all, only Bankai can fully unleash the power of a Zanpakuto, and Hyōrinmaru surely wanted to come out and get some fresh air sooner rather than later.

Therefore, Aoto had instructed Hitsugaya to try and negotiate with Hyōrinmaru during Sword Zen, asking it to wait until his spiritual pressure had risen to the third-class level on its own before manifesting.

This way, the duration Hitsugaya could maintain his Bankai would also increase, which would be beneficial for Hyōrinmaru as well.

Aoto was not privy to the specifics of their negotiations, but as long as Hitsugaya did not complain to him about Hyōrinmaru being disobedient, it was a good sign.

However, since his strength had already reached this level, it was time for a transfer.

Recently, whenever Hitsugaya practiced Heavenly Weather Manifestation, Aoto had heard the grumbling of other division members multiple times.

Hitsugaya must have heard them too, so when Aoto told him he could transfer to the 11th Division, Hitsugaya accepted it quite calmly.

The day after Hitsugaya wrote his application and submitted it to the 10th Division, the captain of the 10th Division personally approved it.

When Isshin Shiba came over to handle the handover, his face was beaming like a flower.

Aoto always had the urge to punch him.

Rangiku Matsumoto was, of course, present as well; she considered herself the primary contributor to "luring" Hitsugaya into the 10th Division.

It is also worth mentioning that Rangiku Matsumoto had already been promoted to 3rd Seat, and for the time being, she would be responsible for Hitsugaya.

While Hitsugaya was currently a 10th Seat in the 11th Division, he would become an 8th Seat upon transferring to the 10th Division.

This was just like a normal job change. If the position and salary of the next job were not higher than the previous one, what kind of job change would that even be?

However, an 8th Seat could barely be considered a high-ranking officer. For a child like Hitsugaya to rise to this height in such a short time since joining the Gotei 13, he might not have been known by many outside the 11th Division before, but after this transfer, he would surely become famous throughout the entire Seireitei!

Hitsugaya Toshiro was about to become known to all!